State Rep. Hecht Reveals his Legislative Agenda

State Rep. Jonathan Hecht, D-Watertown, has filed 18 bills and co-sponsored 137 more for the 2010-11 Legislative session. Hecht represents the 29th Middlesex District, which includes Watertown and West Cambridge. 

Hecht's office recenlty released the following summary of his legislative agenda:

“My focus in this session will be on promoting economic recovery, controlling health care costs, reforming the public employee pension system, and helping Watertown maintain essential services," Hecht said. "At the same time, for the long-term well-being of the Commonwealth, we must keep our commitment to the environment, to social justice, and to caring for the most vulnerable among us.”

Some of the specific bills filed by Rep. Hecht include:

Criminal Justice/Corrections: An Act to implement evidence-based practices in the Massachusetts justice system

The recent crises at the Probation Department and Parole Board have shown that Massachusetts lags behind other states in the use of proven practices in risk-needs assessment, pre-release programming, and post-release supervision of offenders. The bill would establish an interagency commission to implement evidence-based practices consistently across justice and corrections agencies in order to achieve effective individual case management, promote public safety, and reduce costs.

Economic Development: An Act related to personnel records

This bill would eliminate a new, unnecessary, and costly requirement that Massachusetts employers notify employees whenever potentially negative information is added to their personnel records. Given the extremely broad definition of “personnel record” in Massachusetts law, which includes informal notes and e-mails, this new requirement has added significantly to the cost of doing business in the Commonwealth while doing little to protect the rights of employees.

Environment: An Act establishing a Charles River parkways and parklands commission

This bill would establish a temporary commission of legislators, staff from state and local agencies, and planning experts to carry out a comprehensive study of the parkways and parklands along the Charles River (including Charles River Road and Greenough Boulevard). The goal of the study would be to examine the role of the parkways in the regional transportation network, identify ways to preserve their adjacent parklands, and improve access and facilities for non-vehicular users.

Environment: An Act to update the public shade tree law

This bill would update and strengthen the state law protecting public shade trees by specifying professional qualifications for municipal tree wardens and expanding their power to enforce prohibitions on cutting or otherwise damaging public shade trees. This bill follows on a new law that Rep. Hecht authored in the last session whereby utility companies applying for a comprehensive permit to prune or remove public shade trees must submit a detailed plan at least 90 days in advance so that the tree warden and residents have time to review it and seek changes.

Equal Rights: An Act to promote equity in pension benefits

This bill would promote equal pension rights for same-sex married couples by giving certain state employees who enrolled in the state’s 401k plan prior to the legalization of same-sex marriage a one-time option to transfer their retirement funds to the State Employee Retirement System (SERS). This would give these employees and their same-sex spouses equal opportunity to avail themselves of survivor benefits under SERS that had previously only been available to heterosexual couples.

Health Care Costs: An Act to curtail tobacco addiction and related health care costs

This bill would promote a comprehensive strategy to reduce tobacco use and tobacco-related diseases, estimated to cost the Commonwealth more than $1 billion a year. First, it would expand access to tobacco cessation programs for people who receive state-funded or subsidized health coverage. Second, it would raise the state’s tax on cigarettes, which is currently lower than three neighboring states, and on other tobacco products such as chewing tobacco, flavored cigars, and tobacco “mints” that are marketed to youth. Third, it would dedicate part of the resulting revenues to expanding tobacco control programs, including youth education, compliance checks by local boards of health, and outreach to high-risk populations.

Health Care Costs: An Act creating a special commission on institutional long-term care

This bill would support the expansion of home and community-based care for seniors by establishing a special commission to assess the number of nursing home beds needed to care for people for whom home care is not an option and to develop a plan to reduce the number of beds accordingly. This will include the development of quality care criteria by which nursing home beds will be evaluated before they are delicensed and closed.

Municipalities: An Act to close the telecom property tax loophole

This bill would eliminate the outdated tax exemption for the property of telecommunications companies. This exemption was created in the early 20th Century to promote telephone service. Closing the loophole would level the playing field for all businesses, require telecom companies to pay their fair share for local services, and result in an estimated $440,000 in new revenue for Watertown.

Municipalities: An Act to ensure adequate handicapped parking

This bill would require cities and towns to designate no less than 5 percent of their on-street parking spaces as “handicapped parking.” This is particularly needed in some municipalities that restrict on-street parking to residents only.

Municipalities: An Act relative to double poles

This bill would direct the Department of Public Utilities and Department of Telecommunications and Cable to hold public hearings and issue a report on reducing the number of double telephone poles in the Commonwealth. The report would assess the Pole Lifecycle Management (PLM) system established in 2003 as the principal tool for coordinating removal of double poles, update the data on double poles in each municipality, and analyze proposed measures to accelerate their removal.

All of these bills are shown on his website at www.jonhecht.com.